Let Me Die Young
by DemiDemocratik
Summary: This is a songfick based on a song you guys probably don't know. When Hazel, Bigwig, and Fiver go to Nuthanger Farm on a raid, Tab is waiting in the shadows. Please - R&R! My First Watership Down fick (with help from DeFlIs)...
1. Grim Fate

Watership Down:  
  
Let Me Die Young   
  
Angst/Action  
  
Monkey and Jihira  
  
Hazel, Fiver, and Bigwig had gone on a expedition to Nuthanger Farm to collect the rabbits that they had to leave behind on their last venture.   
  
Walking past the oh-familiar surroundings, Fiver quivered horrendously. He made his soft, quivering sobbing noise as he did when he was frightened. Hazel and Bigwig looked at him, in the dark. Hazel hopped a bit closer to him.  
  
"What's wrong Fiver?" asked Hazel, worriedly.   
  
"I… I don't think we should go any further…" said Fiver, quivering, as they sat beside the large, rusty automobile that the rabbits had rested under on their journey.   
  
"Oh, come on, Fiver!" cried Bigwig.   
  
"It's not… safe…" whispered Fiver.   
  
"It's okay." said Hazel.   
  
If only Hazel knew how much he had been wrong.   
  
Fiver let himself fall behind more then ten feet, then he hastily ran up with them.   
  
"Hazel…" Fiver began tentatively, glancing furtively around him, wide eyed. "I don't think…I don't think we should be here…"  
  
"Don't be silly Hrairoo. It's perfectly safe." Hazel comforted.  
  
"Hazel…!" Fiver said, beginning to be irritated at his brother. "We should go back…" Fiver warned, glancing furtively around him again.   
  
"Hraka! We're going and that's final!" Bigwig snapped   
  
short-temperedly. Fiver whimpered, intimidated by the much larger Bigwig. Hazel became a bit protective of his brother.  
  
"Bigwig, you didn't need to snap at him like that!" Hazel barked, angry.   
  
"But he's talking nonsense Hazel-rah!" Bigwig yelled, obviously irritated. A note of pleading was in his voice. Suddenly, Fiver stamped out a warning and Bigwig paused long enough to smell the enemy.  
  
"A cat…!" Bigwig breathed.   
  
"He's right! I smell it too!" Hazel said, obviously distressed because it was Tab, the cat who'd almost killed him long ago.   
  
"I told you! I told you! I warned you!" Fiver yelled in a kind-of 'I told you so' way. He nervously jumped from one spot to another, then huddled to the ground, quivering like a frightened child.   
  
"Well, well, well… Three little bunnies…" said Tab with a hiss. Her eyes were gleaming an unearthly yellow. Her eyes scanned slowly from Fiver, who was trembling terribly, to Bigwig, who was poised to fight or run, before stopping and meeting Hazel's wide, terrified eyes. "Hmmmmm…I know you…" Tab hissed softly, plodding closer to Hazel.   
  
Bigwig had now made up his mind. He wasn't going to run at all. He was going to fight, even if it was to the death. Hazel felt a shiver run from the tips of his ears to the tip of his tail, stemmed from Tab's vengeful, hypnotizing gaze.   
  
Tab's thoughts, meanwhile, were centered only on vengeance. Lucy had long since left the farm, and her father didn't care whether Tab killed a rabbit or not, especially a lame rabbit. Tab, of course, then was consumed with an overwhelming desire to kill Hazel, at least, maybe the other two, depending.   
  
"We must run - now!" cried Fiver, as he kicked lose fragments of earth into the tense air as he ran. He landed himself under a shrub on top of a small hill, overlooking the scene he had just escaped. Hearing a blood-curdling scream from either his brother or Bigwig, Fiver turned to see a repugnant scene.  
  
Bigwig was now standing in front of Hazel, with one eye closed and blood seeping through the slit. Hazel was a quivering heap on the ground, his leg felt as if flaming needles were puncturing his skin.   
  
"Don't worry, Hazel-rah. I won't let you die…" Bigwig had incessantly repeated, each time more and more to himself.  
  
"You can't run, I'll only catch you…" hissed Tab to Hazel, overlooking Bigwig. With that, Bigwig lunged an attack at the murderous predator. Tab only looked with surprise for a moment, then lunged at his heavy body. Her jaws clasped on his neck, and he gasped, gulping for air and only receiving his own blood.   
  
"I can't give up…" he thought. "Darkness…"  
  
His eyes rolled in their sockets, and Tab dropped the warm carcass with a triumphant look on her face, as her slit eyes sparkled and Bigwig's own blood dripped off of her gleaming teeth.   
  
Hazel's fear was overshadowing him. He was quivering horribly, lying on his side on the ground.  
  
"Frith take me!" he thought. "Oh, dear Frith take me!" Images of himself and Fiver as young kits filled his head. When Fiver had sat beside that river, staring into the water and wouldn't come into Sandelford at night, how Hazel ventured out alone to comfort his dear brother. And he could hear Fiver's voice, constantly repeating in his head "They think I'm mad, but you know I'm not, yet you still won't listen!" He realized that Fiver had warned not to come, and now Hazel saw Tab's face darkening… disappearing… he was being consumed by darkness.   
  
The instinct to run was screaming at Hazel, and he did so in a bleak endeavor. He managed a foot when Tab pounced and dug sharp claws into Hazel's back. His eyes were wide, he could feel the flaming needles in his leg disappearing… the legs themselves seemed to be gone. Now, flaming needles were crawling up his back.  
  
"It hurts, doesn't it?" hissed Tab, with a twinkle in her eye, showing she was liking vengeance. She locked her stained jaws on the nape of Hazel's neck, and tossed the limp, yet very much so alive, Hazel through the air and spiraling. He landed with a gruesome thud.   
  
Fiver was looking in horror onto the scene. He didn't really see what was happening, but, he heard things from before. Saw things from before.   
  
He could hear his brother's faint heartbeat, echoing through a metal pipe. But, it was growing fainter and fainter. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't reach the heart beat. It seemed equally far away with every step. He could see eyes, fiery devil eyes. They were fixed upon Fiver, slanted. And horrible laughter filled the air.   
  
"Get out of my head!" screamed Fiver. "Eyes! Eyes! I must save my brother… please, go away!" He shook his head with clamped eyes, and awoke. He looked down. Tab was throwing Hazel flaccidly through the air. Fiver crouched in fear and shut his eyes. Lightly tilting back and forth, he could only hear his brother's voice whispering… "It's okay, Fiver. It's okay. Shhhh… Shhhh…"  
  
Hazel could feel his body and spirit crushing. He was panting with barely any life left in his paralyzed, numbing body. Tab was encompassing him, licking her lips. Hazel felt all of the life draining from him, through all of the cuts and bruises he now had.   
  
Tab then bit down upon Hazel's leg, which had been shot once before at that very farm. The feeling was revived within his leg, which was throbbing. He could feel her teeth, as a smear of pain, growing in his leg.   
  
"Oh," growled Tab. "I forgot. Mother said to never play with your food."  
  
A horrible pain grew in his neck, and everything was black. Nothing was there, except for dancing colors, possibly coming to great him. "Welcome to the afterlife" one chanted.   
  
Fiver ran down as quickly as he could to his dead brother. All fear gone, or perhaps too great to feel, he came face to face with Tab, who reeked of his brother's blood. His brother's blood… it smelled slightly familiar. It is in a synch like smelling your own dead self. But, in all of his memories, one of his greatest nagged at him, and told him that he had smelled that. In a metal pipe were his brother had sought refuge from the surroundings at that very farm.  
  
"Leave my brother alone!" demanded Fiver, with a dangerous gleam in his eyes. "I can get the whole warren on you!"  
  
Tab looked at him, very much so not distressed, and only walked away, swaying lightly. Fiver stared for a very long time at were she had walked away, then, Lord Frith began to rise… red. 


	2. And Afterwards

Ch. 2  
  
And Afterwards   
  
*I believe*  
  
In the beautiful morning, everything seemed to be dulled, by the sight of Hazel.   
  
*In the faithful and true*  
  
"My own brother…" thought Fiver.   
  
*I believe in silly things*  
  
Fiver felt the pains of loneliness, and laid down against his brother's body, which was still oh-so slightly warm.   
  
*Like everlasting love*  
  
Hazel looked like he was sleeping, and in a bad dream.   
  
*But I could never ever believe*  
  
Fiver remembered how much Hazel and he had been through.   
  
*What was struck upon you*  
  
How he had been shot, and only because of Fiver's love, was he saved.   
  
*You fell away*  
  
Silently, Fiver's eyes filled with tears. He got up and stared at the rising sun.  
  
*But this time it was for good*  
  
"Frith," he thought, sadly. "To take him away. Take my brother away."  
  
*Let me die young! let me die young!*  
  
Suddenly, Fiver really didn't care. He felt like his heart was cold and numb. He didn't care if he, Fiver, was alive. Nothing mattered.   
  
*So I can be with you forever*  
  
"It's all a dream," thought Fiver, although he knew better. "Hazel and I are asleep, and he will have had a different dream… a happy dream."  
  
*Let me die young! let me die young!*  
  
Fiver blamed himself. He couldn't imagine anyone being the cause. Bigwig had fought. Hazel… Hazel couldn't have done it. The cat was a cat, and that left him.   
  
*So we can laugh again in heaven*  
  
He remembered how Hazel had been his only hope when they were younger.   
  
*Once again*  
  
He felt the same way now.   
  
*You broke my heart*  
  
He didn't know how he would live. Hazel was his source of life. He had never been nearly as close to any other rabbit as he had been for Hazel.  
  
*Other days the pieces fell together again*  
  
For some reason, Fiver wished he and Hazel had together faced grim fate.   
  
*But this time it's different*  
  
"He can't leave me! I need him!" thought Fiver, as the sun was growing higher and the mist lifting.   
  
*'Cause today my heart is beyond repair*  
  
"I'll never be happy again…" thought Fiver.   
  
*So it bleeds*  
  
He was feeling weak. Something was making him feel small. Like he was a pawn in a master scheme.   
  
*'Cause darling you slipped away*  
  
"Hazel! You had always been strong… how could you be so weak?" thought Fiver, with tears pouring down his face.   
  
*Much too easy for me*  
  
"You weren't supposed to die… without me." he thought.   
  
*Let me die young! let me die young!*  
  
He felt that he was being punished. That he was the one to die. To him, it was punishment he was still alive, breathing.   
  
*So I can be with you forever*  
  
He felt that it was horrible, that birds were singing. He felt that taps should have been playing, softly, in honor of this past life.   
  
  
  
*Let me die young! let me die young!*  
  
"My heart has joined the thousand, for my friend stopped running today…" whispered Fiver.  
  
*So we can laugh again in heaven*  
  
The memories of his brother wouldn't pass.  
  
*When the loneliness inside me*  
  
He saw the plants around him. Some he knew were poisonous.   
  
*Turns to pain*  
  
He thought it would be better to die  
  
*I'll drink my heart to sleep*   
  
Then to be without his brother.   
  
*Just to see you once again*  
  
But, as he hovered above one deadly plant, his brother's face once again was sitting in his mind.   
  
*I believe*  
  
And then, he realized…  
  
*In the faithful and true*  
  
Hazel would never be gone.  
  
*I believe in silly things*   
  
He was always with him…  
  
*Like everlasting love*  
  
In his heart.  
  
*Let me die young! let me die young!*  
  
But, did his brother reflect his heart's feelings?  
  
*So I can be with you forever*  
  
Was he still in pain?  
  
*Let me die young! let me die young!*  
  
His heart would always ache, only time could dull the pain.   
  
*So we can laugh again in heaven*  
  
Nothing was right. And so, with a heart filled with pain, Fiver slowly left his brother with only one last touch, to tell his friends what had happened… a heavy burden for a heavy heart.   
  
*I could die…* 


End file.
